08 November 2012

Post-Election Reflections

  Things are going swimmingly here in Korea. The weather is cooling steadily and the trees are turning on the mountains here in Busan. It is lovely. A sense of optimism has returned following the elections. There is nothing more depressing than an election cycle and this one was worse than most. I was encouraged by the numbers in Florida and elsewhere that suggested the GOP has a real problem with Hispanics. It was also lovely to see Akin and Mourdock go down on their slimy barges of misogyny. This gives me hope. The Republican party will have to somehow separate itself from the vitriol of the ultra-con Teabaggery or risk political oblivion. In doing so the will shoot themselves in the foot with their biggest grassroots constituency and most well-heeled political donors. And I am going to make a prediction: in the next presidential election there will be a tangible third party threat from the right. A Pawlenty/Palin ticket.  I also predict that Hillary Clinton will resign from the Department of State at some point to begin gearing up for her run. The abysmal display by the GOP must have been very encouraging to her. If Obama can work with Boehner to introduce moderate fiscal reforms and further repair the economy the next Democratic nominee will be in pretty good shape against a divided conservative movement.